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Jordan Parker Professor Raymond English 2 2/4/2014 Family History I am extremely close with my family. I have a sister, step brother, and a step sister. My mom and dad have been divorced for over 9 years now and it has brought my family closer than it ever was. I have a big family as it is, on my mom's side I have 6 cousins, 2 aunts and uncles, and a grandma that all live in New York. My dad's side of the family is a little more spread out. I have cousins in Illinois and Tennessee that.J:ms Vuve kids of their own, my second cousins. My grandma lives in Wilmington with my uncle, grandpa, and youngest cousin. My mom got remarried when I was in 5th grade to Brooks Strickland, he already had 2 kids. When they got married I inherited another wonderful family. I got more aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and siblings. My dad has been dating his girlfriend Ms. Anita for about 8 years now, I consider her apart of my family also. She has a son, a daughter, and a wonderful mom that I like to call grandma. As you can see I am very passionate about my family and I am very lucky to have so many people that care about me. ~ -

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After contacting all of my crazy family members I have done the math and figured out where I came from. On my dad's side I am approximately 40% English and 8% Irish and on my mom's side I am German, French, English, and Scottish all split evenly. My mom's side of the family came from Germany and lived right on the border of Germany

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and Austria. Since borders would change frequently they would be living is Germany one year and the next in Austria.

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If I ever wanted to become a citizen of Germany again I would have to have a ~

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permanent residence for 8 years. Another requirement includes being fluent in the Germanic language and I would have to be self-reliant, without the need for welfare. When filling out an application, I would have to renounce my existing nationality. C Sc.ruAC..Q .... .}

During my research of my family tree thought it would be interesting to learn a little about the German flag and the national anthem. The German flag is made up of 3 vertical stripes the top being black, below red, then gold. The flag was first established

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as the national flag after WW'/.. Both East and West Germany had identical flags until 1959 when the East added a coat of arms. Then the two sides reunited again in October 3.J ~ 1990. The Deutschlandlied has been the national anthem of German since 1922,

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not including East Germany. Since WVV2 and the fall of Nazi Germany, only the third stanza has been used as the national anthem. It says, "Unity and Justice and Freedom," ("Fuchs Family History"). Through my research about Germany I found some accustoms that America has adopted. At Christmas time the ritual of decorating a tree came from Germany as well as searching for eggs on Easter. Gummy bears is a sweet treat that Germans brought over from Germany. Lots of people lived on farms where they raised chickens and developed a recipe for chicken fried steak. German Sheppard's are well known here in America. Law enforcement uses them because they are strong animals but they also have a soft side that makes good house pets. In Germany they were used to round up animals on the farm ("15 Things").

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In 1916 my family moved from Germany to New York State. There were 7 children and 2 parents, who would be my 4 times grandparents. Passed down from generation to generation was a book of diaries that my family has written in for centuries. This book dates all the back to the early 1900's. The story I wanted to focus on was the transition from Germany to New York State. In the late 1900's they came to America through Ellis Island. My 3 times great grandfather John Fuchs born 1882 in Seibersdorf Austria and my 4 time great grandma Anna Fuchs, born 1880 in Hettersdorf Austria had 7 children to bring with them. Some of the children were too young to travel so the family had to be spit up. Some of the things they plantedl harvested on their farm in Germany were tobacco, corn, oats, wheat, barley and tomatoes. The animals they raised were pigs, geese, and chickens. The land they currently owned was very pricey. They herd that the land in New York State was much cheaper. So in 1916, they purchased 199 acres between Phoenix and Pennellville and took off for New York. John Fuchs took the train trip first because he had enough money for his ticket. Sister Mary and Beth were the oldest so they went with him on this trip but they had to write in the freight train because there wasn't enough money for tickets. They were considered two stowaways. They had to ride with some furniture, chickens, geese, a

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horse named Lady, and a cow that gave them milk to drink. Grandma Anna sent plenty of sandwiches to go along with the milk. Every few stops their dad, Joseph Fox, would come check on them. He nailed the door shut at night so hobos wouldn't try to get in. After 3 Yz days they reached the United States where they changed their name from FUCh7 Fox. Many foreigners would change their last name to sound more American

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Works Cited E-

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Things You Didn't Know Were German." Listverse. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan.
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Family History." Fuchs Name Meaning & at Ancestry. com. N.p., n.d. web~ ~ 28 Jan. 2014. ,~

v-Fuchs, John. "Fuchs Family Diary." Family Prayers (n.d.): n. pa . Print.

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